


brighter days ahead

by Jadiixmuln



Category: Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware - Fandom
Genre: Autistic Tommy Coolatta, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, New Family, Pre-Canon, gman is. gman, sunkist is a puppy!, tommy is like 7 or 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 09:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27968084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadiixmuln/pseuds/Jadiixmuln
Summary: Tommy had only his puppy, and Gman had only his facility. A small look into young Tommy's life that are totally not based off of kin memories
Kudos: 18





	brighter days ahead

When Gman had stumbled across a little boy and his dog, the last thing he expected (or wanted, for that matter) was to get attached. And yet, here he was, carrying said little boy in his arms around the Black Mesa Research facility in the dead of night.  
Tommy was sniffling, his skin cold and his cheeks bright red. He couldn’t even remember how he got here himself. His memory seemed fuzzy, with only a faint recollection of his foster parents dropping him and his puppy off, telling him to wait. And he did! He waited, hours and hours passed, and the night crept up on them both with it’s bitter cold. Falling asleep in his precious friend’s fur, he shivered, knowing that by now, there wasn’t going to be a return trip.  
He had actually been left quite a ways away from the facility. The only reason Gman had found him was by instinct, as if the very fabric of the world was stitching him and this random child together. The dog of his didn’t even seem to bark at him or defend the boy from him, instead openly letting him scoop him up in his arms. Now they sat, in the hollow warmth of the facility, Gman checking the boy for any cuts or scrapes.  
“Now...how did you...get there? Especially with that, ehm, dog...you couldn’t have walked…”  
“I-I don’t know, mister- my- my new parents dropped me off and said they’d be back! I fell asleep, and- and woke up with you! I don’t know where i am-” Panic filled the boy’s voice, his hands smacking the top of his head, “-and i just wanna go home!”  
Gman seemed to sweat. “Now, now, ehm...what is your, name? Dear boy?”  
“Tommy! Tommy, um- just- just Tommy!” Tommy chewed on his shirt frantically, his speech slightly muffled. His puppy barked.  
“And your...friend?”  
“Sunkist! Please- help me get- get home! Or to a new home- anywhere, mister!” His eyes were pleading, welling with tears. Sunkist curled up next to him, whimpering like she could understand all that was happening.  
Gman was never a kid person, so when a crying one is thrown his way? He has no idea of what to do. He untied his tie, gently wiping Tommy’s eyes. “Now, now...perhaps i can, ehm, find you a...new home. Here.”  
“Here? But- But mister- I don’t know where i am-”  
“Well...i can show you. You are at the...Black Mesa facility.”  
Tommy sniffled. Facility? It sounded important to him. Facilities were important, right? So this man must be important too. “What- what kind of facility?”  
“A research facility, dear boy...topics of science, all sorts of...STEM, ideas…”  
STEM! That was something he recognized from his books back at home! Science- oh how he loved science. If there was anything he could want, it would be to be a known scientist! He had dreams of pursuing immortality, all so him and Sunkist could live forever together. How outlandish…  
“Science! Mister, i just- just love science! Oh i had no- no idea this was a research facility!” Tommy’s hands flapped excitedly, his voice growing in happiness. His tears had seemed to stop entirely, like he had all forgotten about how he ended up here. Sunkist barked again, spinning around Tommy like a missile.  
Gman chuckled. “Of course...I could show you some of the rooms, if you would...enjoy that.”  
Tommy jumped at the offer. “YES! Oh, yes- yes please! And i super promise Sunkist will be perfect- more perfect than ever! Right, Sunkist?” Sunkist barked.  
“More perfect then a...iced drink, on a hot pool day…” Gman mumbled, getting up and retying his tie.  
Giggles bubbled up from Tommy’s throat as he burst into a fit of laughter, “That phrase was- was really funny, mister! I- I wanna start saying that!”  
“Well, i have...plenty more like that, if you, ehm...ever do start such a habit…”  
And soon they began walking, Gman leading the way and telling Tommy all about each room, the history of the facility, the experiments being conducted...nearly everything he likely wasn’t supposed to tell a young child. All the while, alongside every important lesson, teaching the little boy even more of his rather interesting phrases. Tommy had begun making his own, aswell, calling a rather bright computer “more brighter than a neon light in a laser tag arena!” Gman didn’t feel like telling him it was his effort to appear relatable to humans, or that he wasn’t human in general. Sunkist, of course, tagged behind, occasionally sniffing the equipment.  
In the end, they sat in the breakroom, Tommy sipping on a soda from the vending machine while Gman watched. His legs rocked back and forth, a smile pulled across his face.  
“Mister, I- I would love to just stay here forever! It’s so- so...everything! More interesting than 13 atoms on- on a microscope!” he took another swig of his soda, bouncing his knee.  
Gman pondered for a minute. This boy...Tommy, seemed so promising. So bright. And he wasn’t one to just leave a child back in the nowhere. Not to mention, he’d already grown such an attachment to the kid, his happy demeanor breathing life into the mechanical works of Black Mesa. What made this boy so interesting wasn’t just his knowledge of STEM topics, or his love of science, but rather the love he breathed into it. His humanity, his care. It was a reach, but would be much better than another monotone, dull scientist left at the desk.  
“Tommy...how would you like...a home? With me? The facility would be your...second home, per say…”  
“A home? Mister- mister you aren’t joking around, right?”  
“Of course not...I would never, ehm, toy with the heart of someone like you.”  
Tommy dropped his empty soda can on the table, immediately running to hug the older man. His arms wrapped around him as tight as he could manage, tears falling into the other’s suit instantly. “You- I can- i can stay? So- so- so- you’re like my dad?”  
Gman chuckled, patting the boy’s back gently. “I...suppose so, yes.”  
“Thank- Thank you so much mister! Thank you- thank you thank you thank you-”  
“Now, now. You’re...very welcome, dear boy...but i do have a question…”  
“Yeah, um- dad?”  
“What is your last name, again? I, ehm...don’t believe you told me…”  
A million choices rushed through Tommy’s head at once. Last name? He doesn’t even think he has one. He doesn’t remember the one he had originally, anyway...so, he could choose whatever he wanted? Oh, he thought, he better make this count then! Now, what was that drink he loved again…? The strawberry one...ah, yes-  
“Coolatta!” he blurted.  
Gman lifted an eyebrow. Coolatta? That wasn’t one he had heard before, but...humans are strange, he supposed.  
“Tommy...Coolatta. Very nice. Now...you should, ehm, get to bed...shouldn’t you?”  
Sunkist was already curled up below a breakroom table, kicking her legs from a dream she was having. Tommy nodded quietly, letting himself get picked up. “I guess so...i’m sleepier than a snail on sleepy meds…”  
And there he drifted off, dreaming in the arms of a newer family, and in the arms of hope incarnate.


End file.
